Three prisoners have received whole life sentences after a jury convicted them of killing a fellow inmate at HMP Wakefield.
Kyle Bevan, 33, was a convicted child-killer serving a life sentence with a minimum tariff of 28 years. He suffered 25 stab wounds in his cell on 4 November last year. The three men convicted of his killing are aged 45, 57 and 64.
CCTV showed the three following Mr Bevan into his cell after 5.30pm that day. Prosecutors said they came out less than five minutes later in “a satisfied, job-done mood”, having left their victim tucked up in bed. Staff did not find him until the following morning, when an inmate told them something was wrong.
Leeds Crown Court heard that Mr Bevan bled to death from injuries caused by at least two different weapons. The weapon that inflicted the fatal injuries remains missing.
The court also heard that tension in the prison was high at the time. Weeks before Mr Bevan died, another prisoner at Wakefield died after a stabbing, and a further prisoner suffered serious injury in a separate attack.
Hostility to vulnerable prisoners
Jurors heard that the three defendants were hostile to people classed as Vulnerable Prisoners (VPs). This group can include sex offenders and people convicted of crimes against children. Two of the defendants had said they wanted a transfer away from Wakefield.
At the time, Wakefield ran an ‘offence neutral’ policy, with VPs and other prisoners mixed on the same wings. The prison has since changed that approach.
The court heard that Mr Bevan kept himself to himself and mostly stayed in his cell, often asking staff to lock him in. On the day he died, CCTV showed him walking to his cell with the three defendants behind him. One of them took something from his waistband as he went in.
The three men left the cell as if nothing had happened. They shook hands and appeared to congratulate each other.
Judge’s directions
Summing up the case, Mrs Justice McGowan told jurors: “We do not know who did what in the cell. At least one person must have inflicted the fatal injuries.”
Before the jury retired, she stressed that the case concerned Mr Bevan’s death alone. It was not, she said, about whether mixing vulnerable and main prisoners is a good way to run a prison. Nor was it about anyone’s views on how people who offend against children should face punishment.
She added: “Nobody has a right to kill anyone else because they disapprove of what they have done, or because they hate them.”
None of the defendants answered questions in police interviews or gave evidence at trial. The jury convicted them on 18 June, and the judge sentenced them the following day. Two of the three were already serving whole life sentences. The judge told all three men that none of them would ever leave prison.
HMP Wakefield is a high-security prison for men in Yorkshire and the Humber. At its last full inspection, in September 2025, inspectors rated safety as not sufficiently good, respect and preparation for release as reasonably good, and purposeful activity as poor.
